Haywire has to be one of the most streamlined and action packed spy stories ever committed to film, and you get the idea from the get go that that’s exactly what director Steven Soderbergh intended. Haywire reunites Soderbergh with writer Lem Dobbs with whom he collaborated on Kafka and The Limey, the latter another great Soderbergh crime thriller.

Haywire mixes top notch studio style production values with Soderbergh’s penchant for indie touches, like casting Gina Carano in her first leading feature film role. There’s a raw sense to her acting that’s made believable because in real life Carano’s a MMA star of sorts.

Carano’s athletic acumen gives the action an almost unprecedented reality because you have no doubt that Carano can actually kick anybody’s ass that messes with her. And Haywire consists of one double cross after the other.

Actors who try to fuck Carano over include Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, and Mathieu Kassovitz. The only men who are any kind of allies are Bill Pullman as her dad, and Michael Angarano whom she carjacks. Locations like Barcelona, Dublin and vast areas of New Mexico give Haywire an international pulse.

- Michael Bergeron